The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus equipped with an ion generating unit having an ion generating function.
It is no exaggeration to say that an image forming apparatus such as a copier or a printer is an essential device in office; in fact, they are installed in most offices. Besides, in recent years, image forming apparatus are also spreading in ordinary households and hospitals, and have become an article very close to us.
By the way, among the image forming apparatus are such ones that suck air from surroundings of the image forming apparatus into the interior of its housing, supply the air to its image forming section and fuser section, and then exhaust the air outside the image forming apparatus. Among such image forming apparatus, as described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2005-4144 bulletin, there is an image forming apparatus comprising an air cleaning section configured so as to prevent hazardous substances that are generated inside the apparatus from being emitted outside the apparatus, by removing hazardous substances contained in an air current to be released outside the apparatus and thus cleaning the air current, and then by supplying negative ions.
In the technique as described in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2005-4144 bulletin, in order to meet the need for removing toner powder, dust, ozone and the like that are occurring with the image forming operation of the image forming section, it is unavoidable to dispose an ion generating section with an electrode in the proximity of the image forming section and in the air current that is formed around the image forming section. In a fuser section included in the image forming section, silicon is used as a release agent of paper. As a result, the efficiency of generating ions of the ion generating section deteriorates due to an influence of such as silicon and/or the like generated around the image forming section; accordingly, there has been a problem that the capability to clean the air around the image forming apparatus deteriorates as a period of service of the image forming apparatus gets longer.
On the other hand, it is conceivable that deterioration in efficiency of generating ions will be prevented by taking a large distance between the ion generating section and the image forming section. Nevertheless, in a case where a unit provided with an air cleaning function is disposed adjacent to a side face, a rear face or a front face of the main body of the image forming apparatus so as to take a large distance between the ion generating section and the image forming section, extra space becomes necessary for installing such a unit; in consequence, there has been a problem that the space required for installing such an image forming apparatus increases.
The present invention is directed to providing an image forming apparatus capable of performing a stable generation of ions for an extended period of time, without increasing the floor space required for its installation.